NIGHT.
It was the night before Wyvis' return. The whole household seemed
somewhat disorganized by the prospect. There was an air of subdued
excitement visible in the oldest and staidest of the servants, for in
spite of Wyvis' many shortcomings and his equivocal position, he was
universally liked by his inferiors, if not by those who esteemed
themselves his superiors, in social station. Mrs. Brand had gone to bed
early, and Janetta hoped that she was asleep; Mrs. Wyvis had kept
Janetta at her bedside until after eleven o'clock, regaling her with an
account of her early experience in Paris. When at last she seemed
sleepy, Janetta said good-night and went to her own room. She was tired
but wakeful. The prospect of Wyvis' return excited her; she felt that it
would be impossible to sleep that night, and she resolved therefore to
establish herself before the fire in her own room, with a book, and to
see, by carefully abstracting her mind from actual fact, whether she
could induce the shy goddess, sleep, to visit her.
She read for some time, but she had great difficulty in fixing her mind
upon her book. She found herself conning the same words over and over
again, without understanding their meaning in the least; her thoughts
flew continually to Wyvis and his affairs, and to the mother and wife
and son with whom her fate had linked her with such curious closeness.
At last she relinquished the attempt to read, and sat for some time
gazing into the fire. She heard the clock strike one; the quarter and
half-hour followed at intervals, but still she sat on. Anyone who had
seen her at that hour would hardly have recognized her for the
vivacious, sparkling, ever cheerful woman who made the brightness of the
Red House; the sunshine had left her face, her eyes were wistful, almost
sad; the lines of her mouth drooped, and her cheeks had grown very pale.
She felt very keenly that the period of happy, peaceful work and rest
which she had enjoyed for the last few months was coming to an end. She
was trying to picture to herself what her future life would be, and it
was difficult to imagine it when her old ties had all been severed. "It
seems as if I had to give up everybody that I ever cared for," she said
to herself, not complainingly, but as one recognizing the fact that some
persons are always more or less lonely in the world, and that she
belonged to a lonely class. "My father has gone--my brother and sisters
do not need me; Margaret abandoned me; Wyvis and his mother and Julian
are lost to me from henceforth. God forgive me," said Janetta to
herself, burying her face in her hands and shedding some very heartfelt
tears, "if I seem to be repining at my friends' good fortune; I do not
mean it; I wish them every joy. But what I fear is, lest it should not
be for their good--that Wyvis and his mother and Julian should be
unhappy."
She was roused from her reflection by a sound in the corridor. It was a
creaking board, she knew that well enough; but the board never creaked
unless some one trod upon it. Who could be walking about the house at
this time of night? Mrs. Brand, perhaps; she was terribly restless at
night, and often went about the house, seeking to tire herself so
completely that sleep would be inevitable on her return to bed. On a
cold night, such expeditions were not, however, unattended by danger, as
she was not careful to protect herself against draughts, and it was with
the desire to care for her that Janetta at last rose and took up a soft
warm shawl with which she thought that she might cover Mrs. Brand's
shoulders.
With the shawl over her arm and a candle in one hand she opened her door
and looked out into the passage. It was unlighted, and the air seemed
very chilly. Janetta stole along the corridor like a thief, and peeped
into Mrs. Brand's bedroom; as was expected, it was empty. Then she
looked into Julian's room, for she had several times found the
grandmother praying by his bed, at dead of night; but Julian slumbered
peacefully, and nobody else was there. Janetta rather wonderingly turned
her attention to the lower rooms of the house. But Mrs. Brand was not to
be found in any of the sitting rooms; and the hall door was securely
locked and bolted, so that she could not have gone out into the garden.
"She must be upstairs," said Janetta to herself. "But what can she be
doing in that upper storey, where there are only empty garrets and
servants rooms! I did not look into the spare room, however; perhaps she
has gone to see if it is ready for Wyvis, and I did not go to Juliet.
She cannot have gone to _her_, surely; she never enters the room unless
she is obliged."
Nevertheless, her heart began to beat faster, and she involuntarily
quickened her steps. She did not believe that Mrs. Brand would seek
Juliet's room with any good intent, and as she reached the top of the
stairs her eyes dilated and her face grew suddenly pale with fear. For a
strange whiff of something--was it smoke?--came into her eyes, and an
odd smell of burning assailed her nostrils. Fire, was it fire? She
remembered that Wyvis had once said that the Red House would burn like
tinder if it was ever set alight. The old woodwork was very combustible,
and there was a great deal of it, especially in the upper rooms.
Juliet's door was open. Janetta stood before it for the space of one
half second, stupefied and aghast. Smoke was rapidly filling the room
and circling into the corridor; the curtains near the window were in a
blaze, and Mrs. Brand, with a lighted candle in her hand, was
deliberately setting fire to the upholstery of the bed where the
unconscious Juliet lay. Janetta never forgot the moment's vision that
she obtained of Mrs. Brand's pale, worn, wildly despairing face--the
face of a madwoman as she now perceived, who was not responsible for the
deed she did.
Janetta sprang to the window curtains, dragged them down and trampled
upon them. Her thick dressing gown, and the woollen shawl that she
carried all helped in extinguishing the flame. Her appearance had
arrested Mrs. Brand in her terrible work; she paused and began to
tremble, as if she knew in some vague way that she was doing what was
wrong. The flame had already caught the curtains, which were of a light
material, and was creeping up to the woodwork of the old-fashioned bed,
singeing and blackening as it went. These, also, Janetta tore down,
burning her hands as she did so, and then with her shawl she pressed out
the sparks that were beginning to fly dangerously near the sleeping
woman. A heavy ewer of water over the mouldering mass of torn muslin and
lace completed her task; and by that time Juliet had started from her
sleep, and was asking in hysterical accents what was wrong.
Her screams startled the whole household, and the servants came in
various stages of dress and undress to know what was the matter. Mrs.
Brand had set down her candle and was standing near the door, trembling
from head to foot, and apparently so much overcome by the shock as to be
unable to answer any question. That was thought very natural. "Poor
lady! what a narrow escape! No wonder she was upset," said one of the
maids sympathetically, and tried to lead her back to her own room. But
Mrs. Brand refused to stir.
Meanwhile Juliet was screaming that she was burning, that the whole
house was on fire, that she should die of the shock, and that Wyvis was
alone to blame--after her usual fashion of expressing herself wildly
when she was suffering from any sort of excitement of mind.
"You are quite safe now," Janetta said at last, rather sharply. "The
fire is out: it was never very much. Come into my room: the bed may be
cold and damp now, and the smoke will make you cough."
She was right; the lingering clouds of smoke were producing unpleasant
effects on the throat and lungs of Mrs. Wyvis Brand; and she was glad to
be half led, half carried, by two of the servants into Janetta's room.
And no sooner was she laid in Janetta's bed than a little white figure
rushed out of another room and flew towards her, crying out:
"Mother! Mother! You are not hurt?"
She was not hurt, but she was shaken and out of breath, and Julian's
caresses were not altogether opportune. Still she did not seem to be
vexed by them. Perhaps they were too rare to be unwelcome. She let him
creep into bed beside her, and lay with her arm round him as if he were
still a baby at her breast, and then for a time they slept together,
mother and child, as they had not slept since the days of Julian's
babyhood. For both it may have been a blessed hour. Julian scarcely knew
what it was to feel a mother's love; and with Juliet, the softer side of
her nature had long been hidden beneath a crust of coldness and
selfishness. But those moments of tenderness which a common danger had
brought to light would live for ever in Julian's memory.
While these two were sleeping, however, others in the house were busy.
As soon as Juliet was out of the room, Janetta turned anxiously to Mrs.
Brand. "Come with me, dear," she said. "Come back to your room. You will
catch cold."
She felt no repulsion, nothing but a great pity for the hapless woman
whose nature was not strong enough to bear the strain to which it had
been subjected, and she wished, above all things, to keep secret the
origin of the fire. If Mrs. Brand would but be silent, she did not think
that Juliet could fathom the secret, but she was not sure that poor Mrs.
Brand would not betray herself. At present, she showed no signs of
understanding what had been said to her.
"She is quite upset by the shock," said the maid who had previously
spoken. "And no wonder. And oh! Miss Colwyn, don't you know how burnt
your hands are! You must have them seen to, I'm sure."
"Never mind my hands, I don't feel them," said Janetta brusquely. "Help
me to get Mrs. Brand to her room, and then send for a doctor. Go to Dr.
Burroughs, he will know what to do. I want him here as quickly as
possible. And bring me some oil and cotton wool."
The servants looked at one another, astonished at the strangeness of her
tone. But they were fond of her and always did her bidding gladly, so
they performed her behest, and helped her to lead Mrs. Brand, who was
now perfectly passive in their hands, into her own room.
But when she was there, the old butler returned to knock at the door and
ask to speak to Miss Colwyn alone. Janetta came out, with a feeling of
curious fear. She held the handle of the door as he spoke to her.
"I beg pardon, m'm," he said deferentially, "but hadn't I better keep
them gossiping maids out of the room over there?"
Janetta looked into his face, and saw that he more than suspected the
truth.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The window curtains are burned, m'm, and the bed-curtains; also the bed
clothes in different places, and one or two other light articles about
the room. It is easy to see that it was not exactly an accident, m'm."
Then, seeing Janetta's color change, he added kindly, "But there's no
call for you to feel afraid, m'm. We've all known as the poor lady's
been going off her head for a good long time, and this is only perhaps
what might have been expected, seeing what her feelings are. You leave
it all to me, and just keep her quiet, m'm; I'll see to the room, and
nobody else shall put their foot into it. The master will be home this
morning, I hope and trust."
He hobbled away, and Janetta went back to Mrs. Brand. The reaction was
setting in; her own hurts had not been attended to, and were beginning
to give her a good deal of pain; and she was conscious of sickness and
faintness as well as fatigue. A great dread of Mrs. Brand's next words
and actions was also coming over her.
But for the present, at least, she need not have been afraid! Mrs. Brand
was lying on the bed in a kind of stupor: her eyes were only half-open;
her hands were very cold.
Janetta did her best to warm and comfort her physically; and then,
finding that she seemed to sleep more naturally, she got her hands bound
up and sat down to await the coming of the doctor.
But she was not destined to wait in idleness very long. She was summoned
to Mrs. Wyvis Brand, who had awakened suddenly from her sleep and was
coughing violently. Little Julian had to be hastily sent back to his own
room, for his mother's cough was dangerous as well as distressing to
her, and Janetta was anxious that he should not witness what might prove
to be a painful sight.
And she was not far wrong. For the violent cough produced on this
occasion one of its most serious results. The shock, the exposure, the
exertion, had proved almost too much for Mrs. Wyvis Brand's strength.
She ruptured a blood-vessel just as the doctor entered the house; and
all that he could do was to check the bleeding with ice, and enjoin
perfect quiet and repose. And when he had seen her, he had to hear from
Janetta the story of that terrible night. She felt that it was wise to
trust Dr. Burroughs entirely, and she told him, in outline, the whole
story of Mrs. Brand's depression of spirits, and of her evident half-mad
notion that she might gain Wyvis' forgiveness for her past mistakes by
some deed that would set him free from his unloved wife, and enable him
to lead a happier life in the future.
The doctor shook his head when he saw his patient. "It is just as well
for her, perhaps," he said afterwards, "but it is sad for her son and
for those who love her--if any one does! She will probably not recover.
She is in a state of complete prostration; and she will most likely slip
away in sleep."
"Oh, I am sorry," said Janetta, with tears in her eyes.
The doctor looked at her kindly. "You need not be sorry for her, my
dear. She is best out of a world which she was not fitted to cope with.
You should not wish her to stay."
"It will be so sad for Wyvis, when he comes home to-day," murmured
Janetta, her lip trembling.
"He is coming to-day, is he? Early this morning? I will stay with you,
if you like."
Janetta was glad of the offer, although it gave her an uneasy feeling
that the end was nearer than she thought.